On the photo you can see the oldest sample of leather shoe known in the world, found in a cave in Armenia. According to specialists this “surprisingly modern” shoe has been preserved thanks to dryness and organic wastes of ordinary sheep vital activity.
The oldest sample of leather shoes has been discovered by Armenian archaeologists in a cave in Areni on the border with Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Scientists from Ireland, Britain and the U.S. have established that the leather shoe found in Armenia has been made more than five and a half thousand years ago. The shoe was made in about 3600-3500 BC in the Chalcolithic period.
The shoe is made of a single piece of rawhide exactly matching the leg of the supposed owner. It was full of dry grass perhaps for to warm the soles or to save the form. Even laces have been preserved on the shoe.
“Because our find is so well preserved, first, first of all we thought it was only 600-700 years. And only thanks to radiocarbon analysis carried out in laboratories in Oxford and California, we realized we had a treasure in our hands. Time range of the shoe creation is the 3627-3377 BC, and that means that the find leaves even the Great Pyramid far behind” Dr. Pinhasi underlines.
By modern standards, the shoe size is not large. However, scientists are not going to judge on the owner of the shoe. On those days people were more stunted, so it is quite possible that the shoe was worn by a man.
Due to the microclimate of the cave Areni – with its small changes in temperature and cool dry air – an artifact preserved to this day in pristine condition. However, found a number of vessels and baskets, once filled with wheat, barley and apricots, too, survived. Save these items to the present day and has helped sheep dung strewn floor of the cave.
However, there are still mysteries connected with the oldest shoe in the world. Along with the oldest shoe, the research team in Arena has discovered a lot of other mysteries. Along with the shoe, under the ancient fossilized excrements of sheep horn of wild goat, bones of red deer and a flipped broken pot have been found.
Those who wish can already contemplate the oldest shoe in the world at the History Museum of Armenia. This was stated by Pavel Avetisyan -Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.
According to him, this shoe was found a few years ago in 2008, when the Armenian and Irish team of archaeologists carried out excavations on the banks of the river Arpa.
“We took this shoe from the pit in 2008, and it was so soft that you could even try it on” – he said. Despite the fact that Armenian archaeologists carried out the excavations along with colleagues from Ireland and all tests were carried out by experts from Oxford University, the shoe is considered to be the property of Armenia.
Until recently, the most ancient product made of leather was considered to be shoes of “tyrolean iceman” Oetzi, frozen thousands of years ago in the Alpine glaciers and discovered in 1991.
In the Egyptian pyramids shoes have been found that existed 4.5 thousand years ago, and near the British megalithic complex of Stonehenge shoes which existed 5.1 thousand years ago.
Sandals in a cave in the U.S. state of Missouri are far more older than those which have recently been discovered in a cave in Areni. However, they were made of plant material.
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